Shipping disaster...

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I was wondering if anyone has any advice on the following. I bought online a Beomaster900K in pristine condition (to the point that it had a protective film on the panel with buttons, I'm guessing it was there since new and the owner never took it off)

Then the shipping company managed to crush a corner of the cabinet... The photos are hard to look at but they are below.

Two furniture restoration places already told they will not do it since inside it is not wood but some form of particle board, so I might have to try to repair it myself. I was thinking about trying to gently and slowly try to pull the corner up using a clamp. If that would work I would gently sand the veneer and try to refinish (oil?).

But I am very worried the whole operation will make things even worse and the whole corner will break off. Does anyone have experience with things like this??? I will GREATLY appreciate any advice...

Thanks! But indeed, I think flipping in any direction is not an option.

I was hoping that perhaps someone here would know if there is anything that will make the corner softer -- such as heat or steam? Such boards are wood chips with glue, so perhaps some heat could make it softer and easier to deform.

Of course, I do have a plan how to heat that little piece only, gently, and not burn the whole BM :) but I am probably not willing to try it without someone confirming it has a chance of working.

Ok, so after much research, preparations, tests etc. I took a day off my Dad came over to help and we made the some progress. A few photos of the process and the result should be below. Using a syringe with a 1.2 needle we injected as much glue as possible into all possible cracks. The glue I chose was Titebond III ultimate wood glue. There were several reasons for this: it has an open time of about 30 minutes, which would allow for taking things slowly; as long as it fresh one can wipe it off with a wet cloth; it is easy to sand down; and finally, it dries to a nice, light brown color, which is perhaps not an ideal match to the veneer, but it's close enough.

After that we clamped the corner and pulled it up -- this was the biggest unknown in the whole operation, since I was worried the particle board will just break off and make things even worse -- but luckily this didn't happen and the we were able to pull up the corner nicely to the piece of plywood placed on top. Then wiped off the excess glue and waited approx. 24 hours. The result is quite ok, there is still some work to be done: I will have to play with the veneer since some parts of it got misplaced during the whole process, but the plan is to realign and reattach the pieces that got squeezed, fell off etc. So far the result is a bit better than I expected. There is hope that the damage in the end will not be too visible.

I could also greatly appreciate any advice if anyone here has any experience with refinishing the veneer on the cabinet. As the last step I am planning to sand (gently) the veneer - probably try 220 paper, perhaps 300, on the side and see how it looks. I have also coarser paper, but I don't want to go to coarse, and also have 500 and 1000. Then I think perhaps oil would be a good option? I have a bottle of Rustin's Danish Oil, but perhaps just boiled linseed oil would be better?

Also I am not entirely sure what would be the best way to reattach the speaker grill, as I don't want to attach it too permanently, to have an option to take out the speaker if needed.

Anyway, I would greatly appreciate any advice, or comments on this whole ordeal!

However, the surfaces on your cabinet look pretty good so you probably don't need all that. I have used fine grit sandpaper and finishing with regular teak oil with cabinets that don't have too many scratches or flower pot imprints.

If you plan to work further on that corner, finish all that before applying any oils though.

Excellent work, to get the corner veneer better I would cut down the damaged parts with a router (or a Dremel) and fit new veneer cut to size and glued in place one side after the other. Observe the grain when cutting the new pieces, This way you will have to grind down the whole cabinet to natural wood color, if not you will get a color difference between new and old. I always use boiled linseed oil for the finish, I have tried with teak oil but it doesnt get as hard as the linseed oil and it has some tint in it making the wood a little darker.

For the speaker grill I would try with hook and loop tapes in the corners, evt. making 4 bases glued to the grill or the cabinet, to get the right distance to the front.

Mika, Søren and CB -- thanks for the excellent advice!!! It is extremely helpful! I will do as you suggest and refinish the veneer, there are some scratches on the top of the cabinet, and dry spots, that I would like to get rid of. I hope that when I'm done the damage will only be visible when looking at it up close. I bought this BM900K in excellent condition so it was frustrating to see it damaged by the shipping company.

In any case, a pair of Beovox 1600 to go together with it arrived yesterday. Søren, I've found your excellent post with lots of photos on how to renovate them, but so far still struggling with getting the grills off :)

Great pics! I'll try to get the grills off during the weekend. Here is a photo of mine, they are in pretty good condition, except a couple of slightly chipped corners. But they do have the little gold B&O logos! And they sound great!

OK, so here is the finished repair, the cabinet and the corner sanded and oiled. Some signs of damage is still a bit visible, but only after looking at it closely. Given the situation I couldn't really hope for more. Thanks for all the advice!

I am now enjoying some good contemporary jazz played through the BM900K and trying out the different speakers - I have Type B and recently purchased Beovox 1600. I've seen the 1600 praised here on Beoworld before, but I must admit they do sound amazing! And they have not had any work done to them! Some pictures below.